Try Charleston Half Ironman Sat. April 30, 2011

Well, Saturday is the first Half Ironman of the year for many of my Tri Buddies in Charleston…the Try Charleston Half Ironman…1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run…half because of course, it’s half the distance of a full Ironman distance race.

…okay, before you say anything, I ‘know’ that ‘Ironman’ is a brand, and that technically it’s only a ‘Half’ ‘something’, since it’s not an Ironman brand race…so for our readers, some of who are just getting into the swing of this triathlon thing, we’re going to call it a Half Ironman because folks know what that is 🙂

Political correctness stuff out of the way…good luck and wings beneath your feet to my friends on the course tomorrow.

I ‘half’ considered coming down for the race as part of my training for the Vancouver Half that I’m competing in on July 3rd, but it’s hard to hold back to training pace in a race, and then there’s that recovery thing for a week, and coming back into training again so decided against it.

On my training schedule for the day, is a parallel universe Big Training Day that looks like this…I’ve included a short form of the coach description workout notes for space…more details in my training log:

Big Training Day: *Swim 1 hour * Bike 3 hours * Run 1 hour

Type: Swim     Planned duration: 1:00 
WU: 400 yds/m
MS1: Intervals at Threshold pace Set Total: 1600
MS2: 8 x 50 (20 ), as odds Fast, evens Easy Set Total: 400
CD: Make workout last 1 hour.
Total: 2700yds/m

Type: Bike     Planned duration: 2:30-3:00
MS (Main Set):
â– 30′ @ 65-70%/z1-2/Easy
■1 hour at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 80% / z3 / Upper-Steady
â– 10′ Easy
â– 45′ at goal Half Ironman race effort.

Type: Run     Planned duration: 1:00 
MS (Main Set):
â– 30′ @ LRP / z1 Very easy run to start.
â– 30′ at MP / z2 (or as close as you can) Working towards a negative split.

…so actually very close to a full Half Ironman in terms of time & distance…main differences are a little longer on the swim, and about half of the run, but still a substantial ‘race simulation’ training day…it should give me a good idea of where I’m at on the bike, so I’m looking forward to that.

I’ll be in the pool at 8:00am since that’s when it opens for lap swimming, and away we all go 🙂